Guide Company Owner Responds to Denali Tragedy

Alaska Public Media | By Ellen Lockyer

Published May 18, 2011 at 9:30 PM AKDT

Last week, a horrific climbing accident on Denali’s West Buttress route claimed the life of one climber and seriously injured two others. Todd Rutledge is co owner of Colorado-based Mountain Trip, the company that organized the climb. Of the two guides and four clients on that ascent, four summited the mountain. But on the descent, about 800 feet from the top, one climber fell, pulling three others down. I asked Rutledge for an update on the injured climbers and guide Dave Staeheli and Jeremiah O’Sullivan.

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Ellen Lockyer

APTI Reporter-Producer Ellen Lockyer started her radio career in the late 1980s, after a stint at bush Alaska weekly newspapers, the Copper Valley Views and the Cordova Times. When the Exxon Valdez ran aground in Prince William Sound, Valdez Public Radio station KCHU needed a reporter, and Ellen picked up the microphone. Since then, she has literally traveled the length of the state, from Attu to Eagle and from Barrow to Juneau, covering Alaska stories on the ground for the AK show, Alaska News Nightly, the Alaska Morning News and for Anchorage public radio station, KSKA elockyer (at) alaskapublic (dot) org | 907.550.8446 | About Ellen

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